High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is everywhere these days. It’s in just about every processed food and drink, but it’s also on the evening news and the subject of many TV commercials!

I know companies use it all the time, but some of the places you find it surprised even me!

Here are five of the places I really didn’t expect to find HFCS:

1. Whole wheat bread

I was under the impression that if a company would go to the trouble of making 100% whole wheat bread, that they’d stick with healthy, natural ingredients for the whole shebang. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Most whole wheat breads still contain HFCS. If you want to avoid the HFCS, either get the more expensive brands, bake your own at home, or choose pita bread.

2. Raisin Bran

While all cereals are processed and not exactly healthy, Raisin Bran is supposed to be one of the healthier cereals. Sure, the raisins are sugar coated (which is totally pointless since they’re so sweet to begin with,) but that’s not all.

The cereal still gets loaded down with HFCS on top of that!

3. Gatorade

Gatorade contains “glucose-fructose syrup,” which I used to think was some special carbohydrate formula used to maximize endurance and sports performance. As it turns out, it’s just a pseudonym for high fructose corn syrup!

I wouldn’t recommend Gatorade as a sports drink anymore, but I still wonder, why not plain sucrose? Maybe then it wouldn’t be so syrupy and leave that sticky feeling in your mouth.

4. Barbecue sauce

Here I thought barbecue sauce was tomato sauce with extra spices and seasoning. But it’s actually high fructose corn syrup with extra spices and seasoning!

I’ve only found one kind of barbecue sauce without HFCS – Bull’s-Eye BBQ sauce from Kraft Foods. But it still has sugar as a main ingredient.

5. Hot chocolate (powdered mixes)

As if it’s not bad enough that this is just a mix of sugar and cocoa powder, these mixes also contain both high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil!

I figured since it was powdered, they’d use table sugar. But nope, they choose syrup and oil!

The next time I find anything filled with high fructose corn syrup, I won’t be surprised at all. It’s everywhere, and I’m sure there are supposedly healthy foods with HFCS that I don’t even know about!

Today’s question is about choosing between a commercial recovery drink and a homemade protein shake for post-ride recovery…

Quick question. So of course I know the importance of post workout nutrition and the proper foods to eat. Recently, I started making protein shakes with banana, whey protein powder, water, and oveltine powder for simple sugars or I will add gatorade powder.

My workouts consist of an hour and a half off high intensity spinning, 60 reps leg press, and then about 20 minutes of core. I was talking with my coach and he said to have a recovery specific drink like the ones made from Powerbar. However, a trainer at the gym said protein shakes will help build and repair muscles faster allowing your muscles to get bigger.

So my question is, is a protein shake or recovery specific drink better for building muscle and recovering?

Thanks so much,
Recovering Randy

Hi Randy,

I think of the recovery drinks aimed at cyclists (like Powerbar Recovery, Endurox R4, etc.) and protein shakes based on whey protein powder as completely different things for different goals.

I see the recovery drink as a way to replenish glycogen stores (thanks to calories mostly in the form of carbohydrates) that were used up during exercise, and to help repair slight muscle damage (thanks to a small amount of protein added in.) It’s to make sure you feel energetic for your next endurance workout.

A whey protein shake, on the other hand, is for adding lots of calories to bulk up and provide even more protein than is necessary to rebuild muscles after a strenuous weight workout.

In reality though, you’ll get similar results with either one.

I don’t have the nutrition facts for one of your protein shakes (it will vary depending on how much of everything you put in,) but let’s break down these drinks.

Starting with the Powerbar Recovery drink:

If you take two scoops of Powerbar Recovery drink powder, you’ll get 180 calories, 40g carbs, and 6g protein (along with 500mg sodium.) It will make for fairly easy digestion and quick glycogen replenishment.

I’ll try to break down your protein shake:

Banana: 100 calories, 25g carbs, 1g protein
Whey protein powder: 130 calories, 5g carbs, 25g protein
Ovaltine: 80 calories, 18g carbs, 2g protein

That comes to roughly 310 calories, 48g carbs, and 28g protein. You get more carbs with this, but only because you’re taking in almost double the calories. That’s great for building muscles (when combined with lots of resistance training,) but usually a little too much for a post-ride beverage.

For post-ride recovery (and workouts like yours that are mostly riding and calisthenics based,) I’d go with the recovery beverage. But that doesn’t mean a protein shake wouldn’t be fine in the evening to make sure you are getting enough protein.

Also, you could do a shake with the banana, Ovaltine, and maybe 1/4 scoop of protein powder for use immediately after a workout. I’d actually do that rather than spend the money on a commercial recovery drink.

To summarize, both drinks can be useful for recovery purposes, but I prefer the recovery drink style of beverage for immediate post-ride nutrition.

Today’s question is about mixing Hammer Gel into water bottles with water or Nuun in there…

Coach I am wondering if it would be beneficial to mix NUUN tablets with Hammer Gel in my water bottles?

Thanks,
Mixin’ Mikie

Hi Mikie,

That’s an interesting idea. The mixture would give you calories from your preferred source (i.e. Hammer gel,) plus plenty of electrolytes from Nuun.

I’m not sure if you knew this already, but mixing Hammer Gel into water bottles (with plain water) is pretty popular. Since Hammer gel is thin, it mixes in easily, and it’s more convenient to get a little gel with each sip of water than to carry gel packets and take in all the calories at once.

I bet if you asked Hammer, they’d say to mix Endurolytes powder and Hammer Gel in your bottles. While I don’t want to fall into the “Hammer fanboy” category, this is one case where I’d just stick with Hammer’s stuff.

I look at it like this: I like Nuun for the flavor, but you can get flavor from the Hammer gel. The other reason I like Nuun is because there is no mixing required, but if I was already putting gel in the water bottle, I’d plan on giving it a shake.

So mixing Nuun with Hammer Gel takes away my favorite benefits of Nuun, but brings in the part I don’t like – the artificial sweetener. From a health standpoint, I’d just go with Hammer’s Endurolyte powder and Hammer Gel for those longer rides where you need extra electrolytes.

Anyway… yes, you could mix Nuun and Hammer gel together. I just don’t see myself doing it.

The only real problem I see is finding complementary flavors so you end up with a good tasting drink. But I’m sure it’s possible. Maybe berry Nuun with huckleberry Hammer gel?

Good luck if you do try it!

Today’s question is about getting the energy you need to work a full time job and still have a life, but doing so without caffeine…

i work a full time job.workout 3-4 days a week and play professional softball 2 weekends a month. is frs stuff for me because i hate the crash of red bull or any caffine thats out there. if so what do you recommend for me?

thanks,
Softball Sam

Hi Sam,

As for drinks to look at, I have an article about caffeine-free energy drinks that may help you pick something.

When it comes to FRS, I had no instances of an energy crash, but it does contain some caffeine. It’s not like a Monster energy drink, but you’d have to try it yourself to see what you think.

If you want to stay away from energy drinks completely, you could try supplements. One thing I’d recommend is just taking a B Complex or Vitamin B12 supplement each day. That gives you the same active ingredient as a caffeine-free energy drink, but at a much lower price.

There is more information on B vitamins and antioxidant supplements in my article about possible FRS energy drink substitutes.

Last but not least, make sure you get plenty of sleep and eat a healthy diet. If you’re not doing that, adding any sort of energy drink is a poor solution.

More information on this can be found in my article, 3 Simple Ways to Get Energized – For FREE.

You know the general rule about doing one long ride (3-6 hours) per week to maintain endurance? Even during the race season where you’re focusing more on interval training and racing itself, it’s common to do that long endurance ride each week so your body doesn’t forget what it’s like to go long.

Well I was thinking about that, and I wondered, “couldn’t that idea apply to other areas?”

Almost instantly, I got the idea to do an “endurance eating” day once per week, too. This would be one day per week where you consume a substantial amount of calories above your usual intake. It’s not a cheat day where you can binge on junk food; rather, you’d binge on your regular healthy diet of fruit, vegetables, oatmeal, lean meats, nuts, legumes, etc.

I’m not a doctor or an RD or anything, and I didn’t test this idea in a laboratory, but I think it has merit. Here’s my reasoning…

First, the ever popular “starvation mode” argument. This is where your body adapts to a restricted calorie diet and therefore lowers your metabolism, burns fewer calories, stores more fat, etc. It’s not a good place to be.

That’s the danger with restricting calories every day for long periods of time. Your body just adapts to that caloric intake and you’ll no longer lose weight that way. (Just like if you do the exact same exercise routine for a long period of time, your body adapts and no longer produces results.)

People used to say that if you skipped meals, your body would enter starvation mode. I think that’s an old wives’ tale, though. Experts that I have some faith in say starvation mode kicks in after seven days. (It has to do with the hormone leptin; here’s some more info on starvation mode if you’re interested.)

What I’m thinking is that if you strategically eat big once every week or two, you can keep your body out of starvation mode and continue to burn lots of calories, as if you were on a high calorie diet each day. Basically you are keeping your body prepared to handle a large amount of food in one day (just like keeping it ready to handle lots of miles in one day.)

Ideally your body will think “burn fat!” since it will think you’re eating 6,000 calories per day, but then since you’re eating healthy and low on the calories for the next 3-6 days, you burn more than normal thanks to that big eating day!

By the time your body starts considering that you’re going a little low on food, bam, you hit it with another endurance eating day!

I know that this strategy is getting more common in the general fitness and bodybuilding population (for example, there’s a book called Cheat Your Way Thin,) but I thought it was interesting to compare it to endurance training so it makes more sense for cyclists.

And hey, what’s better after a long endurance ride than a huge amount of tasty food? The two go hand in hand!

Photo credit: morrissey